Friday, July 12, 2013

The "R" Word

Retired.

What is your gut reaction to being referred to as retired? If you’re similar to most Baby
Boomers, you resist this label. Some people are even offended by the term and
quick to correct our perception of their status, using titles such as rewired
and repotted.

Why the strong response to a simple word? A dictionary
search for the meaning of “retired” explains:

If these words describe retirement, then it’s no wonder we
need a new way to think of this next stage of life. Who wants to be grouped
with a bunch of old, aged, discharged individuals? Instead, we need a new
perspective on retirement—a fresh perspective.

Retired. Refreshed.

I like to think of retirement as hitting the “refresh”
button on a webpage. By refreshing the page, the information is more current.
Old news no longer appears on the page. We’re not making decisions based on
outdated information or way of thinking.

Even so, when I refresh a webpage, not everything changes.
In fact, very often the differences are subtle. The same is true for designing
a happy retirement lifestyle. Research suggests that people experience a
greater sense of well being when there is continuity in their lives. Refreshing
doesn’t take us to a different website, it simply represents the current status
and information that we have to work with.

When you think of your life as a webpage,

how does it look
different once retirement refreshes the page?

Have fun with this question. Take out a piece of paper and draw
a webpage that represents your life before retirement. Then refresh the page by
taking out another piece of paper and drawing a webpage that represents your
current or future state.

What changes? Do you have new categories that didn’t appear before retirement? Are some areas more or less important than they were before refreshing the page?

This is a great time to think about what you want to have
more of in our life. When I did this exercise, a place for employment was still
on my page, but it was more creative, in my own colors, with my name on it. It’s
a refreshed version of how I want to work at this stage of life.